Alasya

Founded in 1978 by Cihan and Cemal, who met and married at a restaurant called Alasya in Cyprus before immigrating to Australia. The name is the old Ottoman word for Cyprus, the east Mediterranean island the founders came from. It began as a single, tiny shopfront serving home-style Turkish food and has since grown into a larger operation that also takes in a retail butcher, a wholesale bakery and corporate catering.

The kitchen turns out fresh, handmade Turkish cooking — kebabs, meats, dips, freshly baked bread and syrup-soaked sweets — at affordable prices in a family setting.